Thread: Hot Towel

My wife and I were given 2 sets of beautiful Williams-Sonoma blue & white kitchen towels and dishcloths for Christmas a year ago. Since we had plenty already in use, the towels and dish cloths went into storage. However, when I started shaving with a straight razor eight months ago, I discovered that they made great all-around wet-shaving towels, so I appropriated them. Our sets included the W-S "striped" dishcloth in blue in a set of eight and W-S "logo" towels in blue in a set of four. Inspired by the posts on using "hot" towels for wet-shaving, I plan to try the larger towel as a hot towel. It just happens that my shaving den has blue striped wall paper, so the towels look great. They do come in a variety of colors.

The Williams-Sonoma towels are a bit expensive at $5@, so if I were in the market, I would buy the RoyalShave towels at $2.29@. However, since our W-S towels were FREE, THEY ARE NOW OFFICIALLY SHAVING TOWELS.

Here are three William-Sonoma Sites for the towels:

Williams-Sonoma Striped Towel, Set of 4 | Williams-Sonoma

Seasonal Contrast Williams-Sonoma Striped Dishcloths, Set of 8 | Williams-Sonoma

Towels | Williams-Sonoma

I just love getting free shaving goodies!

Happy Shaving!

I just run hot tap water over the towels. My water is very hot. I got my towels from Classic Shaving. I don't know if they still sell them but they had two types. One was a cotton towel with a green stripe on it and the other was a terry towel all white. I think the green stripers were vintage products while the terry is new.

Originally Posted by MickRussell

It's funny, the old barber's manual I got hold of from the early 1900s talks about the hot towel being used AFTER the shave, but folk here talk about substantial benefits using it before hand. I haven't tried either so I really can't comment on the effectiveness either way, I just think it's curious is all and wonder if it serves a different purpose in each case.

Ya, you would think it's better beforehand to soften the beard.

Thanks for all the info in your replies guys. I've been soaking the towel in very hot water which seems to work alright, but I find that it cools off too quickly on my face. I do need a better towel for this though, as some of you have mentioned.